


The secrets we share

by Thewhitestars



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 1X09 divergence, Dragons, F/F, Same Universe but other things happen, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 01:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7993000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thewhitestars/pseuds/Thewhitestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Canon divergence of 1x09. Cat isn't fooled by Kara and her body double. Plus, Cat has a secret of her own...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The secrets we share

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Fictorium for the edit. You rock!

Cat’s nose twitches. The smell of the sweet tea she indulges in on nights like these fills her office.  
She’s about to call for her assistant, the first syllable of her name already leaving her lips when she can hear the whoosh that usually accompanies Supergirl’s arrival. 

Cat does a quick scan of the area outside her office and of course her super competent assistant is nowhere in the bullpen. How could she be, when she’s just landed on her private balcony? 

She’s going to wring the truth out of the girl, soon. 

Until then, well a well-placed barb will have to do. Not nearly as satisfying as the truth, but Cat likes playing games. Especially when she has the upper hand. 

“I never realized how absurd you look in that ridiculous outfit. Blue, yellow and red. It’s like a colour wheel threw up.” She rolls her eyes for emphasis. 

Supergirl chuckles and keeps her hands on her hips. “I’m sorry to bother you Miss Grant but James Olsen said you wanted to see me? Something about you thinking your assistant was me?”

Cat is not in the mood for this tonight. Not with this badly delivered speech. If Kara wants to keep pretending, she should at least make an effort.

“Oh for God’s sake, are we going to keep on playing this tiresome game?”

She pours a little more of her tea and readies her next shot. The one that will out Kara for once and for all. 

“I told you it wasn’t a game, Miss Grant.” Kara - _Kara_ \- somehow enters through the office doors like any other day.

And for a moment Cat is flummoxed. Really and truly confused. She looks from her assistant to Supergirl and back. 

“I’m afraid I can’t stay long, there’s a lot of people out there that need help. As you well know…”

No.

Something is wrong. 

Cat scents the air and there is Kara’s smell – as usual it creates a small frisson of heat in her belly, one that Cat is quick to squelch, but underneath that… something else. Something she hasn’t smelled in a long, long time. It’s very faint but as the two cheating imposters pretend to meet one another for the first time, Cat breathes in a little deeper, letting the air flow in through her nose and out over her sensitive tongue. And yes, there it is again. One of the two isn’t human and Cat’s money is on ‘Supergirl’.

Lying to protect her identity is one thing, but Cat’s pride won’t take this mockery of her intelligence. Not after the other night. Not after she thought they’d had an understanding.  
This has gone too far. The game was tedious before tonight and now she is truly done with it. 

“We’re finished here.” She announces. She means it in more way than one. 

Kara looks at Supergirl with a brief flash of relief. She will deal with her super assistant later, but first she will handle the imposter. She needs to get them alone.

Cat takes an item from the table in her hand.

“This bottle, will not refill itself”

Cat waves in Kara’s direction with her expensive tea pot and the girl takes it happily. A little too happily and smug. It grates on Cat. Kara thinks she managed her deception, the silly girl. 

“Good night Miss Grant” Supergirl turns to take her leave but Cat won’t have it. 

“Nuh uh, Supergirl. A word with you.”

Kara’s eyes grow comically wide and she stammers “But... but Miss Grant”

“But what, Kara? Now that you’ve clearly established you’re not Supergirl I don’t see what you have to say here. Tea. Now.” She turns her back to her assistant and gives the imposter a once over. 

Kara looks at her mirror image, who gives her the smallest of nods. It’s all right, go. 

When Kara is clear of the office and striding towards the kitchen, sending an anxious look over her shoulder, Cat turns her attention to Supergirl. 

“Well” she drawls as she stalks to her desk in a few strides, her heels clicking loudly in the silence of her office. She presses a discreetly hidden button under the desk and the glass of her office turns opaque, cancelling out all sound from the outside. A click confirms the locking of the doors. Her very own privacy and security system. Installed after another one of her employees turned evil. She uses it rarely, and paid through the nose for it, but this is one of those times she’s glad she has it.

“A little privacy, if you don’t mind.” Cat indicates the glass panels and sits on the edge of her desk, the stem of her glasses between her lips as she reviews Supergirl still standing in her office. 

“What do you need from me Miss Grant?” The imposter asks in Kara’s voice, folding his arms over his chest. She’s pretty sure it’s a he. Though with his species it’s especially hard to tell. 

“Very impressive. “ Cat compliments as she turns her head a little sideways. “I’ve never seen a glamor this good.”

“Wha…” The charlatan doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Cat stand up and starts circling around him, like a predator watching its prey, catching him off guard. She can smell the sweat starting to form at the base of his neck. He’s getting nervous. Good. 

“I thought your kind was extinct.” Her words are soft-spoken and he must have to strain his ears to hear them. A shiver runs over his back and his pupils widens slightly.  
“Well it’s just me and my cousin Miss Grant, but I wouldn’t call that extinct just yet.” The imposter says in Kara’s voice, a slight nervous lilt to it. They shift in their stance, arms dropping to their side. 

Even the mannerisms are spot on. This imitator must know Kara quite well.

Cat waves her hand in his direction.

“No, no.” 

Cat smiles at her guest and she can see him straining as he looks at her. Of course, he possesses powers Kara does not. Ones that won’t work on Cat herself. He probably just realized that after keeping the world turned down for so long.

Cat drops her glasses on the desk and looks the fake Supergirl right in the eyes. 

“I wasn’t talking about our dear Kryptonian friend Martian.” She says it so offhandedly that he forgets to monitor his response. 

His eyes widen and he sucks in a quick breath. It’s minute, but Cat hears it. Her senses might not be as sharp as Kara’s but she has centuries of reading humanoids under her belt. 

Cat comes face to face with the Martian. She stares at him as though she can see right through Kara’s face.

“Quite remarkable indeed” And then, her eyes flash to a deep golden hue for a moment and she hisses a long drawn out word in an ancient language. Like parchment sliding over skin. The sound of it creates goosebumps all over J’onn’s skin and when they both look down at his arms they are his own familiar green colour. 

J’onn looks up to Cat’s smug face with wide eyes and recognises her for what she is. “Draconem”

Cat’s mouth twists into a smile and her eyes flash again. Only now he should be able to see the faint image of scales in her face, the heat that comes off her skin as she momentarily drops a fraction her own glamor. 

The media mogul takes a step back, allowing the Martian his personal space back. 

“From her, I might have expected this.” Cat says as she picks up her tiny teacup and sips from it. “But you should know better than to try and trick a Dragon, Martian.”

J’onn bows his head to the ancient creature. 

“If I had known you were a Dragon, I wouldn’t have made the attempt.” 

Cat gives him the smallest of nods and hums to herself. “She’s coming back this way…” She leaves the space open for him to fill with his true name. 

“J’onn. J’onn J’onzz”

“J’onn.” She tastes his name on her tongue and nods. “An old house, shapeshifter.” A range of emotions plays over his face before he catches himself and he morphs into Supergirl again. 

“I would like to speak to you soon. Martian. About boundaries.” She lifts an eyebrow and gives him a glare. 

J’onn nods and prepares to leave. He has his feet off the ground when he turns to the woman that exposed him. 

“If you already know the truth, why not simply tell her?”

Cat sighs. She regards J’onn for a moment and decides, against her nature, to be honest. If he cares enough for Kara to risk exposure then perhaps she can use him in the future. A little honesty can go a long way in securing allies. 

“Because I want her to come to _me_ , because she trusts me. Because she _wants_ to.”

“Kara has lost a lot in her life, Miss Grant. All she has is her few friends and small family. Supergirl is a risk to them. The more people know the truth, the greater that risk is. She is right to be careful. Especially to her boss, who runs a multimedia company. Who makes a living off telling the world all about Supergirl.”

Cat rolls her eyes and prepares a cutting comment, but the Martian interrupts her before she can open her mouth, Kara’s blue eyes pinning her in her seat. 

“Perhaps if you want honesty, you should remember that is supposed to work both ways.” 

J’onn whooshes out of the office as Kara knocks on the door and Cat, peeved, presses the button to unlock the system, letting her assistant, and the cacophony of the office back in.

**

Her assistant enters the office and sets down the boiling hot water nervously. And really who is she fooling now? Any ordinary human would have used a cloth. Cat can sense the heat coming from the container from where she is sitting on her sofa. The fact that Kara couldn’t hear what was going on in the office must have thrown her off enough to make her just a little careless. 

“Where is Supergirl? D.. Did you get what you need?” Kara bumbles. 

“Kiera…” 

Cat looks at her assistant, her mind turns around the words of the Martian. Perhaps…

Perhaps, but she would need more than just empty words. She’s loathe to admit it, but this assistant means more to her than all the others combined. Kara is well, Kara. And no matter how much Cat wants to deny it, perhaps it is time for honesty.

“It’s late, go home. I can manage the rest without you”

**

It takes Cat a few days, well more than a few, but she comes up with a plan. Which is not so much a plan as it is just coming out with it. There really is no delicate way to do this. 

It is late in the evening and she’s purposely kept the young woman here longer than usual. The busy office now empty, save the two of them, when she calls her in. 

Kara enters the office, ready to serve and the thought always gives Cat a pleasant tingle. She enjoys servitude from everyone. It’s inherent in her nature, but from a powerful creature like Kara... Well to say it’s an added bonus would be putting it mildly. (She dare not think about other reasons she enjoys Kara’s presence so much.) 

“Kara.”

The girl stills, shocked by the use of her proper name. Eyes wide, she looks warily to the other woman who’s perched on her sofa, another cup of tea in her hand. It soothes her and right now, she can use all the calming agents she can get her hands on. Her eyes drift to the bowl with brightly coloured M&M’s on the side.

“Miss Grant?”

“Sit,” Cat commands. 

Kara sits down carefully, on the very edge of the sofa, hands fidgeting in her lap.

Cat pours the hot water Kara brought in earlier over some fresh leaves and sets out another cup. 

She faces Kara, her own hands primly on her knees.. Cat hasn’t outed herself in decades, much less to an assistant. It is proving much more difficult than she’d imagined. 

“A recent… acquaintance….”

Kara’s eyebrows rise. Cat clears her throat and Kara’s eyes shoot back to Cat, something heavy twists in her stomach. 

“Has pointed out to me that trust, should come from two sides. And that perhaps you have a good reason to hide your identity from me, because you have no reason to trust me. “

“Miss Grant… I-”

Cat holds up her finger “No... no, let me finish.” 

Kara is about to protest again but Cat glares a little harsher and Kara sinks further back into the cream-coloured sofa. 

“So. I will give you a secret of my own. Then you will know you are safe. Because what you will know about me will be equally as dangerous as what I know about you.”

Cat sets a recorder down on the table. She presses a button on the slim silver device and a red light springs to life, signalling that it’s on and recording. 

“I am recording this so that you have something tangible, so you’ll realize how serious I am.”

“Miss Grant, really.” Kara starts again but then Cat growls. Honest to god growls… Kara looks as though she felt the temperature in the room go up a few degrees. 

Cat stand up and paces the room, gathering the courage to say the words. Usually this is much easier. Usually she’s not this fond of the person she’s revealing herself to. She presses her hand to her stomach and centres herself for a moment. 

When she opens her eyes she sees the abandoned office and makes a decision. It’s now or never.

“I have known you are…” She looks at the recorder on the table as gestures to Kara with her hand. “You know… for a very long time. Because like you, I have certain… powers…” 

Kara sits on the sofa, eyes wide, watching her boss pace the room and making allusions, recording every second of it. Cat can only guess at what she’s thinking, wonders if the girl is going to pinch herself. Probably not, being impervious to pain.

Cat comes to a standstill before her. 

“Are you even paying attention?”

“What? Y -yes! Miss Grant.”

Cat rolls her eyes. “Do stay with me. I do not intend to repeat myself.” Cat says as she sinks back onto the sofa, closer than before, her knees almost touching Kara’s.

“Kiera…” Maybe lapsing back to the wrong name will make this easier, reassert their natural dynamic.

“Kara.” She doesn’t want to give up her correct name now she’s heard Cat say it. 

“I haven’t been honest with you but I have demanded honesty from you. I see now that was unfair of me. You have merely been doing the same as I was. Protecting your family.”

“Miss Grant, I really don’t understand any of this.”

“I will show you something, and you must promise me you will stay calm. I will not harm you, but I need to show you so you’ll understand. Do you think you can handle that?” 

Kara is thoroughly confused but Cat is as serious as she is about pairing red and purple on the same page so she nods firmly and takes a deep breath. 

Cat sighs and closes her eyes. It’s been a while since she’s let her glamor go this much and it’s a little like relaxing your fingers after carrying a heavy grocery bag. Her skin tingles and she’s careful to let her other form shine though just enough so there can be no mistake about her identity but not enough to start a full-fledged transformation. 

She opens her eyes when she hears Kara’s gasp. Golden eyes open and look at Kara.

With her dragon’s eyes it’s even more obvious how beautiful the girl is, her aura shines around her like a halo. Pure and white. 

Though Kara will still see Cat’s face, underneath it, all around her, she can see something else, the vague impression of a dragon’s body. 

“You’re… you are...”

“A Dragon, Kara.”

Cat closes her eyes again and slides back into her human skin. The glamor firmly in place once more, she looks her assistantin the eye. 

“Now you know.”

Kara looks starstruck. Like a kid in a candy store. “A dragon?”

She jumps up from the couch in excitement. “I have so many questions! I don’t know where to start!”

Cat looks at her babbling assistant in confusion. To be honest… she had expected more terror and less joy. She usually has to calm people down when she reveals her true form. Then again, she should know to expect the extraordinary from Kara. After all, she’s far from human. 

Cat huffs and jabs her finger at the recording device to shut it off. 

“You’re not even a little bit impressed?” Cat drawls. 

Kara stops her pacing. “I am the Girl of Steel, I doubt you could seriously harm me, Miss Grant. Even if you are a... a dragon.” Realisation dawns on her face. “Oh Rao…”

“Finally.” Cat mutters as she take a delicate sip of her tea. 

“Miss Grant? 

“Hmm?”

“How does this work?” Kara waves her hand in Cat’s direction. 

“Oh. Well. It’s a glamor. A bit like your Martian friend only far more advanced. My other body is much too large for this office. The transformation expends a lot of energy so I usually inhabit this one. It’s much more practical.”

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew Kara. I am a Dragon. I can spot the extraordinary pretending to be a nobody like ‘that’.” Cat snaps her fingers and Kara can’t help but be startled. 

“I...I...”

Cat’s face softens.

“You weren’t ready. And I understand that now Kara. I have been so used to hiding that’s I’ve forgotten what it can be like. Humanity has advanced greatly, but somehow they’ve never outgrown the pitchforks and knights in shining armour – metaphorically speaking of course.”

Kara squints at her boss. “Just how old are you?” she asks with a cheeky grin.

Cat lifts her chin. “Older than you….No number that I will admit to though.”

“I did spend twenty-five years in a space pod…”

Cat levels Kara with a stare –really, you want competition? 

“I have seen the rise and fall of kingdoms Kara.” 

Kara’s eyes grow wide once again. 

“That is SO cool.” She bounces a little in her seat. When she sees Cat’s glare she apologizes. 

“I’m sorry, Miss Grant, but you have to understand. Dragons were the only thing Krypton and Earth had in common. Legends and myths about them. It was as if I had a little bit from home here whenever I read stories about knights and dragons and I have always wondered if there was any truth in it. Because it’s weird right? That two planets so far apart have the same legends?”

Cat can’t help but smile at her assistant’s enthusiasm. It’s one of the things she secretly likes about her. Her sunny demeanor, and her smile. God, that smile. 

“Cat.”

“W… what?”

“I think you should start calling me Cat.” 

Kara blushes, her stomach turns into a knot and all the emotions of the past hour have her almost nauseous. 

“But only when we are alone. Of course.”

Kara nods eagerly and her smile is so bright, it could blind someone if they weren’t careful. 

They stare at one another and the moment feels significant in a way Cat can’t really describe. With both their secrets now out in the open they are more than just boss and employee. And if they’ve skirted that line in the past, they have now well and truly crossed it. The silence between them isn’t awkward but rather a quiet acknowledgement of how the power has shifted.

Cat picks up the recording device and holds it out to Kara. “Your safeguard. So you know I will never out Kara Danvers as Supergirl.”

Kara gingerly takes the device in her hands and looks at it for a long moment. Then, she crushes it in her hand with a small squeeze of her fist. “I’d rather believe you won’t do that because you want to Cat. Not because I lord something over you.” She looks at Cat nervously. 

The other woman is stunned for a moment. Warmth floods her and she understands the gesture for what it is. Trust. 

“And it’s Zor-El.” Kara states, like somehow it feels important to tell Cat that. Cat feels honored to be one of the very few who must have heard it.

“My real name is Kara Zor-El. Danvers is the name of my adoptive parents, my human parents.”

Cat nods, understanding that this too is Kara giving a piece of herself to her. 

“Can I at least publish that?” Cat asks with a glint in her eyes and a wicked grin on her mouth. 

Kara throws her head back and laughs. 

“Well then. After all this I feel it’s time to call it a night.” Cat stand up and smooths down her pencil skirt. 

Kara follows her example and after a nod from the other woman she makes her way over to the door. She lingers, waiting for Cat to gather her purse. When Cat meets her by the glass doors of her office, Kara makes another decision. 

“Miss Grant, I mean, Cat,” she says nervously. 

Cat watches her curiously, wondering what could have her assistant in such a state. 

“There is one thing… A-and I’ve always told myself it was impossible. I mean you are my boss. Human, and I was scared to hurt you if we’d ever… I mean.” Kara fidgets, readjusts her glasses. 

“And well… ” Kara trails off, her bravado suddenly leaving her as her eyes drop to Cat’s lips and back up. 

“Out with it Supergirl.” Cat demands impatiently. Sometimes it is hard to reconcile her shy assistant with Supergirl, who is much more straightforward. 

Kara gathers her courage and surges forward to kiss Cat. It’s brief, more like a peck than an actual kiss. 

Cat feels faintly stunned. This, she was not expecting. 

“I...I’m sorry. I thought...” Kara stutters. She looks dizzy, pale in a way Cat has never seen before.

Kara doesn’t get to finish her thought as Cat leans in herself to meet Kara’s lips. Her hand sliding around her neck and into sun kissed curls. Cat’s tongue slips past Kara’s lips in a deft stroke and all thoughts in Kara’s mind grind to a halt until here is only the sensation of the kiss left. 

Their kiss ends quite suddenly, Cat’s lips leaving Kara’s with a growl and Kara is confused for a moment until she notices she’s floating a foot above the ground. 

“Is that something that happens often?” Cat asks with a smirk. “Or is it just for me?” 

Kara flushes and stammers an apology.

“Because that would be highly inconvenient” Cat motions towards Kara who gently touches down on the ground again, trying to avoid looking at her boss.

“I can fly, but I can’t float like that. There is no way that would work” 

“You can fly!?” Kara gasps.

Cat Grant rolls her eyes and tugs the Girl of Steel towards the elevator, determined to kiss her senseless in the time it takes to reach ground floor. If nothing else, it might wipe that ridiculous grin off her face. 

As the elevator rolls towards them, Kara can’t resist one more question. 

“So when stuff, uh, happens, it’s going to be this body, right?”

“Yes,” Cat sighs. “Unless you’d prefer…?”

“Oh, I like this body a lot,” Kara clarifies. The elevator pings its arrival. “And now I know you’re not entirely human either, I can show you exactly how much.”

**Author's Note:**

> Phew! okay that was my first foray into writing again after a long while. Let me know what you think?  
> I am on Tumblr under Thewhitestars -> or you know leave a message right here.


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